>> we were in intensive negotiations over the past ten days. we met off to the weekend. planned meetings for tuesday morning. i think it was just another factor that kept pushing us that this is the right thing for the game. this is the right thing to do. get the officials back on the field. hit the agreement concluded. that was really what everyone's objective was. we were already and that intensive. and that was a point to just help us push forward. it pushed us to the point where we got the agreement we really needed to get. i think there was a real pressure, i think, for everyone to get the officials back on the field this weekend. the officials wanted to get back on. i believe we were to reach an agreement this week regardless of monday night or sunday night or the past weekend.

everyone was to the point of getting this concluded. >> you mentioned intense negotiations to get what you want. was it worth whatever sacrifice that was made? >> you know, these negotiations are top. labor negotiations and labor management disputes are difficult. what is most difficult about it is you have the two parties, but you have a lot of parties outside of the room etiquette impacted by it. starting with our fans. we are sorry to bring the fans and general public to that. they are also necessary to get the disputes resolved in a way that makes sense. you do not go into one of these is trying to create a win lose, you try to create a win-win. you are looking for a long-term agreement where people can look

back and say we are proud of it. make officiating and the nfl better. be respectful and responsive to both parties. the officials wanted to get certain aspects of their agreement resolved here and a lot of theirs was economic, a lot of them were work conditions and rightfully so. on the nfl side, for my purposes, i really wanted to make sure we would have in place things that could help officiating for the long-term. full-time officials having a pool of officials that we could use to develop officials. to train them and get them on the field. to make it better going forward. make sure that long interest of the game is taking care of. there is always short term pain, but you have to get to the long-term place. >> commissioner, there are some who say they should never have gotten to this point. they say you should have worked

it out before the season and that it was an embarrassment. >> the last thing we discussed last night was full-time officiating. it was not the first time. it was the last thing that was agreed to. we had to work to try to get to the point of making sure the economics were in place. making sure that full-time officials were fully agreed to. the pulling of new officials, where we could train and develop them. that was building consensus. not just on economic issues. on the long-term issues of the game. >> you said you felt pressured to get a deal done heading into this weekend. was i pressure lacking before week one and we do and why was that so? >> i think there was pressure on all of us to get an agreement from the get go. i do not think anyone wanted to

go into using replacement officials. i do not think the officials wanted to come off the field. there were clear economic differences and differences on how to move forward with the officiating program. i got more intensively involved just prior to the season to try to see if there were ways to resolve some of those differences. we were really in intense negotiations the last ten days. it does not always happen at the speed we would all like it to happen. >> as a fan of football, just watching on monday night, what was your reaction? >> you never want to see a game and like that. you never want to see a game and on a controversial play. that is something you would always like to see avoided. it happens in sports. sports are not perfect. officiating is not perfect. life is not perfect. i think that is why we all love

sports. you always want to i -- you always want to avoid those controversial calls. >> was it going back to your full-time employees without pensions? on their side, wide, and if there was a problem with full-time, what was their issue? >> anytime you are transitioning from one benefit program to another it is difficult. it is difficult for the people who are being impacted by that. in this case, the officials. you have to understand that. that is why we came up with a compromise that made sense. we would do it over a five year time. defined benefit programs, they are out of date. they do not exist in the industry going forward.

i think it was important to him that and move into the contribution program. that was done successfully. on the other issues, i think the officials just wanted to make sure it was done right and we wanted to make sure it was done right. we work together to make sure it was done right. that is the best part about and eight year agreement. melissa: that is nfl commissioner, roger goodell, talking about the deals to get the nfl referees back to work. he was saying "it was the right thing to do and that they were ready to reach an agreement regardless to what happened on monday." i do not know about that. just in case you are tuning in, you can see the referees really kind of one there. they are not moving over to a defined contribution programs anytime soon. he was defending that. they did get an immediate raise for 2013.

it is essentially a part-time job. moving up to ~ $5000.2013. lori: it was an interesting discussion. could you imagine economic impact of not having football in this country? talk about a ripple impact. melissa: there may be an increase in productivity. lori: that was a pretty pathetic segue on my part to talk about the economy. as you know, there was a slew of economic data points released today. generally weak data. gdp and durable goods spell trouble ahead. m is a chief economist at russell and is joining us now.

will there be an economic impact? >> hopefully the nfl, as you said, will lead to less productivity at work. getting back to that net positive for the economy. lori: thank you for flying. you had a downward revision. does that cause you to change your outlook? >> no. i view the gdp number being revised, i think that is just in line and reconciling with the last six months. the payroll data has averaged 97,000 jobs a month. that seems more consistent with the 1.3 gdp numbers that we sell today and with the 1.7 we saw previously. i think we are just reconciling accounts here. lori: you are on board with this qe3 that has been so controversial?

>> yes. i certainly am. i view qe as a step towards growth targeting. if they have this formal inflation target of 2% now, they certainly want to keep room in the economy for 2% real growth. i think the important thing is at no point since the recession has the economy hits a 4.5% gdp growth rate. i think the fed is justified in saying we need to do more. lori: tell me more about nominal gdp. that versus real gdp. we are so focused on inflation. >> the federal reserve really can only control nominal variables. it can help nudge things and create an environment that is

suitable for real growth. it is overall including real growth and inflation. the nominal level. that is really all the fed can do in terms of targeting things. qe3 could help if it gets gross expectations up for nominal spending. they will see that more estimates may be in order. lori: thank you for your time. we are a little short because of the press conference. we appreciate you joining us this afternoon. >> sure. melissa: public employees and private employees may have different paychecks. we all want more money. charles payne is here to help us with that. lori: i got a little preview of his pic today. you will have to wait until after the break. melissa: we will have it for you after the break. lori: $24 for gold.

silver climbing 2%. definitely a central bank story here. rumors that china will start using. i read that somewhere. back with more after this. ♪ tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 wh i'm trading, i'm totally focused.

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melissa: i do not know if you can get past the gdp number. lori: let's go to medical petallides on the new york stock exchange. nicole: all of those things are very important to the economy. focusing on the budget and moving forward. we have had a stronger euro, weaker dollar. really gave a boost to our market here. they are very sensitive to the headlines abroad. the dow is up 78-point right now. i want to talk about the analyst calls. first yahoo! with a bite over at goldman sachs. just saying now that it is looking pretty good for yahoo! back to you. melissa: thank you so much.

we'll climbing back after closing below $90 a barrel yesterday. so much weakness in that. bill clinton is in the pits -- phil flynn is in the pits. >> if you look it goes off the board today. the biggest spread to the next month. it is a classic squeeze play. a lot of physical counseling buyers as well as a lot of people betting after hurricane isaac gasoline production would come storming back. a lot of issues around the globe about not just here in the u.s., imports of gasoline are down big time. every major market across the country, you have the tightness of supply.

there is worried that there is a physical fire. melissa: that is like an 8% move. that will translate the press of the pump if it does not go back down pretty quickly thank you so much. a tough time selling the it group anytime soon. charlie gasparino has that story for us. lori: let's check the dollar and how it is faring today. the euro, by the way, is at eight, well, the dollar is weaker, as well. we will be back with more after this. ♪ want to try to crack it? yeah, that's the way to do it!

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the value of spending time together that's a lot of work getting that one in! let's go see the birdies. [ male announcer ] one on one, sharing what you know. let's do it grandpa. that's why humana agents will sit down with you, to listen and understand what's important to you. it's how we help you choose the right humana medicare plan for you. because when your medicare is taken care of, you can spend more time sharing your passions. wow. [ giggles ] [ male announcer ] with the people who matter most. i love you grandpa! i love you grandma! now you're a real fishman. [ male announcer ] humana.

♪ >> 22 minutes past the hour. i am jamie colby. this fits your fox news minutes. messages call on the rebels to surrender their weapons and

warned that the countdown is underway. international space station is safe and there are no worries. mission control has called off plans to move that away from the pieces. orbiting debris has been a growing threat for astronauts living on the space station. a florida businessman is making a buck. ringing tiny alligators to kids birthday parties. he says the parties are safe because the gators mouth are taped shut. you should always use caution. you think? that is your fox news minute. melissa: i do not think i would put my kid in a pool with a gator, mouth taped shut or not. lori: unbelievable. melissa: that is crazy.

it has nothing to do -- charlie gasparino has the exclusive. charlie: you can always tell when i write the tosses. let's see what that felt in the room is. melissa: do you have a photo? do you hang out all the time? charlie: when he was ceo of merrill lynch was having that ridiculously expensive office. just let me finish. [ talking over each other ] this is a news story.

do you want people to watch? lori: go on. charlie: my nose is itching. he does not have the same office. it is described to me as lots of formica and plastic. very low-key. it kind of looks like an insurance office. got that out of the way. cit. he has learned his lesson. can he sell cit to a big u.s. bank? he wants the work back on wall street and want to run one of these places. since the london wales trading mishap, what i understand, what bankers are telling me, regulators have clamped down on major acquisitions by the six or so systemic important things. wells, bank of america, citigroup, the big players.

they are really worried whether these banks are not just too big to fail, but too big to manage. what bankers are saying right now and maybe after the election, there will not be a major acquisition. does that mean zero, none, i do not know. they look at cit group as being a difficult acquisition to agree to. what does cit group to? it lend to small and medium sized businesses. they do not have a deposit base. it is a little more complicated and risky. the price tag would be something like $10 million. this is a very difficult sale for him to do in the u.s. he will have an easier time in canada if the regulators in canada wanted. canada regulators are pretty tough. it is not impossible, but it is

difficult. if you are buying the stock, factor that in. he is doing a pretty good job running cit. he has on the restricted list. they work on bankruptcy. he gets lifted from that list soon. forty dollars a share, i cannot tell you whether that is a good price or not. lori: what is the likelihood are why not just leave cit alone? speaking all of these guys want to get the price up. they want to be master of the universe. people talk about it would be great if citigroup bought him. he is a good operational guy. he just has a few blind spots.

he does his office in the middle of a financial crisis. operationally, you know, let's be honest, he knows what he is doing. lori: thank you so much. charlie: if you do not waste all that time -- melissa: i like to give you a hard time. charlie: remember, this is my five minutes of fame. just remember that. melissa: [laughter] lori: charlie, we love you. melissa: the clock is ticking. michigan's budget director joined us after the break. lori: the winners and losers on wall street. you have some pretty good movers here. discover financial services up 5.5%. juniper user face up. we'll be back back in a minute.

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use promo code: gethelp. plus get this document shredder free-- but only if you act right now. call the number on your screen now! ♪ lori: stocks now as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides is standing by. nicole: we are taking a look at nike and research in motion. you can see how they are faring going into the back half of the day. for nike, one thing to watch is china. china may be a thorn in nike's side. we talked about the new lebron sneakers. nike up about a half percent. research in motion is down after having gained this week. the question is how much cash did a half on hand.

we will see how they are faring with that. lori: it will report after the bell tonight. melissa: in just 95 days, the u.s. will fall right off the fiscal cliff. it is a trillion dollars in on a medic spending cuts in the state of michigan. that could mean up to a billion dollars in lost revenue. a series of cuts. can the state swallow ablow of this size? joining me now is john. you went through an entire decade were you recently made some significant cuts to get your health back in order. >> absolutely. we realized we wanted to get the

budget back into structural balance. lori: what will it mean to you if the sequestration goes into effect? >> i think certainly we will look at the programs in the area getting scaled back. there are two phases to the fiscal cliff. one is the reduction of federal spending. the other is the impact of the tax cuts and those types of things. we are watching each of these federal programs. the main thing is the uncertainty that the states are dealing with. our biggest risk is the federal government. melissa: you are worried you will not be getting money from the fed? how would you make that up? would you immediately start cutting? >> absolutely. what the federal government would look at the programs and

we would start to scale them back. certainly, that is not on the top priority. congress this duty is to determine the spending priorities, the flow of money to the states and certainly we will scale those programs back. melissa: do you feel like this will really happen and, as a result, are you already planning? >> well, you know, and lots of programs the state administers are exempt from the sequestration. the other programs, the workforce training dollars, certainly as we are beginning to rebound, they will be difficult to administer and scale back. we will have to look at and determine how best to deal with them. melissa: that is the plan. that is where you would make the cut? >> yes. it will come through. it will be pretty prescriptive wherewith cut the programs.

melissa: we have to go, but do believe this will really happen in a i think it needs to. you are running trillion dollars deficits. certainly, the numbers do not quite add up at the federal level. if we can have some certainty and understand what will happen, i think the states are good stewards and will react accordingly. melissa: interesting. thank you. lori: let's talk about healthcare cost and how they are soaring in this country. fox news medical correspondent doctor marc siegel joins us now. this is a great debate going on in the healthcare industry. do you spend more on pre-screenings to obviously have to come up with these costs later on?

>> here is where i think it pans out. this is ovarian and prostate cancer awareness month. there has been a lot of debates in the past year. we should not be screening for ovarian cancer. we are doing a lot of unnecessary tests and doing false positive testing. with the prostate that it is even more of an issue. they say do not do the esa. they have literally cut down by 50% prostate death over the past decade. we are spending over $100,000 per patient. if you wait, without it 90% of the time the cancer comes late. the preventive services task force says well, wait a minute, what about the unnecessary biopsies and surgeries. i spoke to the dr. who is one of

our experts here and let's see what he has to say. >> the esa is not the best test in the world. that is all we have. for u.s. task force to come in and say this is not a good test, you do not need to get tested, you will see a lot of men out there who vaulted this crack and end up having their cancer spread. >> that is the key point. it is about the dr., not the test. rather than looking for a trend or trying antibiotics first. how can you blame the test? the test tells us we may have a problem. if we diagnose it early, we save money. lori: what about the cost associated with the test? even if i am told my doctor i do not need this type of

rescreening for ovarian cancer because it has been unsuccessful or what have you, i still feel in my heart i want to go through it and my insurance company says it is up to you. where do you stand? >> you are getting right to the heart of it. the healthcare industry should be willing to cover the insurance companies should cover the best care. if you find prostate cancer early, you get a great technology that you get a great surgery, you get a cure and then there is less money spent. with ovarian cancer, you have the opposite problem. screen if you can find it and get it out early. otherwise, you are looking at chemotherapy which is very very expensive. lori: look at obamacare and the medical device companies. 3% tax slapped right on the top. >> that will hurt medical technology. we will not have the latest and

greatest cures and treatments because of that. lori: concerning stuff. great to be aware. thank you. melissa: tonight it is back to work for nfl referees. find out what it took to get them back on the field. roger goodell said it is not because of monday night football. yeah right. lori: treasuries today. look at the ten year yield. it is up to 1.65%. thirty year is that 3.8%. back with more after this. ♪

♪ >> i am adam shapiro with your fox business brief. pending home sales fell in august after hitting a two year high in july. sales agreement dropped 2.6% pushing the index just below the mark of what is considered a healthy market. the rate on a 30 fixed mortgage hit a low time out again. better than expected third-quarter results are expecting to benefit from an increased credit card use. discover also got a boost from the expansion of its services division. it signed a deal with paypal last month. discover is working with google on a project to allow medicare payment to be allowed on mobile

phones. that is the latest from the fox business network. giving you the power to prosper. ♪

♪ melissa: is it do or die for research in motion? the street is looking for a net loss of $0.46 a share. investors, this is the surprising part, they are seemingly confident with shares of more than 10% in a week. peter misek is on the phone right now. >> they had their first bit of good news in a long time. i think that is really part of it. their conference for developers.

i think they really try to get people excited about it. until the phones come out and we see how successful they are, it is the wrong time to be buying the stock. melissa: what is the number one piece of data you are looking for today? >> whether or not they bring cash. if they bring cash, that could be a big trouble for them. melissa: they have 2.2 billion on hand. is that right? >> that is what they had on hand at the end of last quarter. if they were to earn 400 million, that would be concerning. that would be a problem for them. launching the new products would be a significant use of cash on the capital side. they need the power. melissa: what is the best path forward for this company? their shares are down about 94% from the all-time hi they had back in 2008.

the company has been so this -- so mismanaged. there is value there. what do you think is the best way forward for this company? >> the best way forward is to allow their messaging app to be used on other devices. that becomes the platform on all smart phones. we believe that is the best route forward for the market. very very high-end, very business focused and that is what we think will be the best. melissa: all right, peter, we will look for that. thank you. stay tuned here. stick with fox business. david asman will have live coverage and reaction as research in motion and nike report after the bell.

you cannot afford to miss those programs. there are two big earnings reports today. lori: i will be watching. let's check the markets with nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole: we are looking at the dow that is up just about 100-point. let's take a look at the mattress makers. you are looking at sealy corporation. there you go, up 2.4%. tempur-pedic is up 17%. off of its earlier highs. they have agreed to acquire sealy and the deal was a $1.3 billion deal. they will work together. back to you. lori: thank you. a touchdown for football fans after three weeks of bad calls. the green bay packers lost the game monday night because of the call. the nfl and referees union have

reached a tentative eight year agreement. peter barnes has this story. >> i am relieved. good lord. you have to love this. yeah, right? lori: touchdown. >> don't want to do that too much. not too many puns here. regular officials will be back at work tonight aired the lockout has been temporarily suspended while the rest can -- while the referees look this over. roger bedell said the bad call on monday night was not a factor. >> i think it was just another factor that kept pushing us that this was the right thing for the game. this is the right thing to do.

get the officials back on the field. get the agreement concluded. that was really what everyone's objective was. >> it is a new eight year contract. it will take the rest through the 2019th season. there will be some pension reforms. some nice increases. 200,000 a season by the end of 2019. the owners also got some flexibility in benching refs. speed. lori: what happens to the replacement refs? >> they go back to arena football. melissa: they go back to the lingerie league. lori: how do you know about it. >> the lingerie league? lori: learn something new about melissa today. melissa: let's get back on track here. lori: i used to play powder

puffs back in school. anyway. is silver starting to outshine gold? sandra smit has our trade next. melissa: as we go to break, let's take a look at our winners and losers. ♪ gecko (clearing throat) thank you, mr. speaker, uh, members of congress. in celebration of over 75 years of our government employees insurance company, or geico...as most of you know it. ...i propose savings for everyone! i'm talking hundreds here... and furthermore.. newcaster: breaking news. the gecko is demanding free pudding. and political parties that are actual parties! with cake! and presents! ah, that was good. too bad nobody could hear me. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

♪ melissa: hedge funder of the most bullish they have been on filbert in month. it will be interesting to watch. is it also time for you to invest in silver? sandra: . it's really interesting.

you hear it a lot down here. silver is outperforming gold this year. many of them are pinning it on the fact that we just got another round of quantitative easing announced by the fed. they say it will switch over to outperform gold and many of the analysts are using history as a guide. morgan stanley says silber will outperform gold at least in the next three quarters. silver rose 24% in the second phase. that ended in june 2011. already, the bids are flowing in. hedge funds the most bolstered they have been. they say it has that industrial component, as well as the hedge against inflation and currency moves. we are definitely hearing a lot of bullish talk about silver. silver, by the way, already

outperforming gold. the trade is already on. melissa: silber on fire again today. sandra, they do so much. lori: interesting how silver trades. [ talking over each other ] wealthy americans are feeling a little more risky, at least when it comes to their investments. a new survey from merrill lynch shows people who have more than $250,000 in adjustable assets are feeling were confident with their finances. they are counting for all the unknowns in the market, whether it is the picture on fundamental call the election, fiscal cliff -- they see economic uncertainty as a new normal. new normal. that phrase we are using quite a

bit. melissa: they are just used to being sort of crappy. lori: we learn to lower our expectations. melissa: coming up tonight on "money" we discussed how fracking has lowered carbon emissions. this is really interesting. that is right here on fox business. i had not heard this. lori: i want to hear about that. unemployment claims falling to their lowest level. but we could expect from the next jobs report. only two more reports before the election. melissa: should we be worried about gdp shrinking? we have the dream team. lori: they are coming up in the next hour. ♪ crack it? yeah, that's the way to do it! now we need a little bit more... a little bit more vanilla?

this is great! [ male announcer ] at humana, we believe there's never been a better time to share your passions... because the results... are you having fun doing this? yeah. that's a very nice cake! [ male announcer ] well, you can't beat them. [ giggles ] ohh! you got something huh? whoa... [ male announcer ] humana understands the value of spending time together that's a lot of work getting that one in! let's go see the birdies. [ male announcer ] one on one, sharing what you know. let's do it grandpa. that's why humana agents will sit down with you, to listen and understand what's important to you. it's how we help you choose the right humana medicare plan for you. because when your medicare is taken care of, you can spend more time sharing your passions. wow. [ giggles ] [ male announcer ] with the people who matter most. i love you grandpa! i love you grandma! now you're a real fishman. [ male announcer ] humana.

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>> good afternoon, i'm tracy byrnes. ashley: and i'm ashley webster. some dark clouds, but some rays of sunshine especially on the jobs front. find out what today's data means for the economy and the election. most importantly, your money. tracy: state finances are in dire straits across the country, maybe because state workers are actually paid more than those doing the same job in the private sector. we have those numbers. ashley: should you be denied a job because you were charged with a crime even if those charges were dropped? that is what one guy found when applying to be a cop in massachusetts. a good debate. tracy: it is a good one. time for stocks as they do every 15 minutes, nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. up 95%. spain again? nicole: i would give a lot of the moves to spain, some credit

has to go to spain today. in europe the euro zone gaining strength, the dollar has been falling and equities moving to the upside as soon as it began to break. around 11 or so, that is where we really saw our pop of the day. and seeing financials with the headlines out of europe. jpmorgan took off, the majority of those components are well into the green. retailers and drugs, transports are higher, oil services, a lot of green arrows. i want to also take a look at a big deal, looking at the mattress companies coming into the stoplight particularly today. up 17%. they have agreed to acquire at a

premium still operating independently. worth $1.3 billion but a big move for the mattress maker, back to you. tracy: nicole petallides, see you 15 minutes. ashley: i love it. my next guest says continued stimulus on the federal reserve is a fools paradise in only a matter of time before it implodes. joining me with more on how to play the market. thank you so much for being here. if the u.s. was a company, would you invest in it? >> absolutely not. probably the worst balance sheet i could imagine seeing and truly amazing bonds keep getting bought up when that is the way to play the u.s. balance sheet. ashley: so this continual qe one, two, you say it will

implode, when do you think that will happen? >> this may be a while, but when europe solidifies a little bit. the dollar is going to tank because of all the money being printed, essentially. that is when people will realize this economy has to stand on its own legs and cannot rely on uncle ben pumping liquidity forever. ashley: is the fed making these moves on purely political grounds? >> there is no question in my mind at least a lot of pressure from the white house for the market to be propped up at least until the election. ashley: you like the fundamentals, exactly how do you play it? tracy: individual stock selection is very, very important. looking for things that haven't participated, would like to look for targets of mergers and acquisitions with stock prices

artificially high, a lot of wires are going to be smart trying to use their stock as currency to buy cheaper companies. ashley: is this market over due for a correction? speak i think it is close to three months overdue for a correction. i think sometime in the next three months we will see a dramatic 150-250-point correction. ashley: plus we have a presidential election leading to a lot of uncertainty. we have the fiscal cliff, surely a tendency to go at it right now. >> you're seeing that in the u.s. stock market as well, one of the safer asset classes. i don't think there is a lot of uncertainty, i think obama is going to win and the democrats will win the senate, that is in the market already so the uncertainty you would normally expect going to presidential election unless something cataclysmic happens between now

and the beginning of november, i don't think that will play a big part in the market. ashley: starting to get some real dire warnings. fed imac fedex stands out, how disturbing is that? tracy: it is interesting you bring up fedex. way back when, so goes gm, so goes the market. wal-mart was maybe the best indicator, fedex is the real indicator of what is going on in the u.s. economy. when it says the volumes are down and pricing is weak, i would go to school on that. ashley: thank you for joining us, appreciate it. >> thank you. tracy: state workers are making more than they are private company counterparts. you broke the story at noon, they are making more money than us. >> taxpayer watchdog citizens against government wages, state workers make 6% more in wages

and benefits than employees performing the same job for a private company. every state government pays its workers more for the same job on average than those in the private sector. >> hard-working americans struggling to pay their bills, find a job or find enough money to set aside for retirement are being forced to pay with these extravagant employee compensation packages. these employees are supposed to be public servants, not a privileged class. >> in the report the state paying workers the closest to private worker benefits. states with the largest gap, california, north carolina, texas. they reached ou reach out to thg government union workers, the statstate county and miscible employees and are still waiting for a full response to this report. an economic policy institute study for a couple of years ago says educated government workers actually earned less than those

in the private sector. they say when we examine total compensation costs, college educated public employees cost more than 20% less than similarly educated private sector employees. the earnings differential is greatest for professional employees, lawyers and doctors. citizens against government waste the nationwide between 2 2-$4 trillion short on their pension fund. back to you. tracy: thank you very much for all that. ashley: we heard from both presidential candidates, america must reduce reliance on foreign oil. learned america's energy independence is indeed growing regardless of who occupies the white house. the image department reporting u.s. oil production is at the highest level since january 1997 and on track to have the highest level of self-sufficiency and 21 years. 83% of the energy needs met in the first six months of the year

and has declined by 3.2% from the same time last year. horizontal drilling in the controversial technique used in two states. isn't it wonderful to matter what happens we have no impact on our oil supplies. tracy: imagine. big macs, french fries and let's throw in tv. tv addicts, mcdonald's has mcdonald's tv. ashley: get your resume in. plus, charles payne with a healthy stock pick. already showing some muscle. but we told you america's one step closer to oil independence. take a look at oil, up above the $90 mark now up nearly 2%.

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use promo code: notme. order now and get this document shredder to keep sensitive documents out of the wrong hands-- a $29 value, free. call the number on your screen. [♪...] ashley: it is time to make money with charles payne. today he has a portfolio in tip top shape. >> it is not the portfolio, it may be you. herbalife is one of these controversial stocks. it is up huge.

this deal could be a whole lot of room on the upside. you guys remember when the money manager did not like this, short it, bless them and a conference for the mid-quarter, you can see it on the chart, the stock completely collapsed. in july they had a conference call, he doesn't say anything, there's a bit of relief. october 1 and 2nd he has to speak, everybody is on pins and needles. he has made a lot of money and get back into the stock. whatever company he mentions, i feel sorry for the shareholders, but beyond his opinion i have to tell you the stock was pretty intriguing. beating the street pretty handily usually by double digits, raising our guidance recently. same-store sales have been impressive. asia pacific, the volumes are

higher than america. mexico growing almost as fast as america. china grew at 54% last quarter, this is becoming a normal play. i'm not telling you if the product works or not, but unless they are cooking the stocks, this is oversold. tracy: is this like an employment story? you can create your own little business. no you cannot call it a pyramid, it is a marketing thing. it is what it is. it is easy to hop into these much like selling avon. could it be everybody's out of work so we're selling vitamins? tracy: i don't know we have had the entrepreneurial zeal, but that's one of the things he said, our distributors are buying this but are not selling it. it sits in their basement, not truly a success story, that is what the big? is.

again, it is hard, but the numbers are on the up and up. the stock is oversold. 55 is a big test from there. >> when it comes to grammar and pronunciation, i a i was so jeas of stuart. tracy: i can recite the magna carta and still sound like an idiot from jersey. mcdonald's testing in-house. the custom channels being tested in 700 restaurants. the m. channel will be their own in-house broadcasting network

featuring news, entertainment, localized forecasts and are getting as well. also a range of other advertisements, already some big players getting involved including mark burnett, "the voice," and others. ashley: survivor: mcdonald's should be interesting. >> they might get some herbali herbalife. ashley: as we do every 15 minutes, let's go back to nicole petallides on the floor of the nyse. one credit card company charging higher today. >> i'm still thinking about the m. channel. eating a big mack or something good. they came out with their numbers, and what they have seen is really some thing decent economic indicator have fewer customers actually defaulting on what they borrowed. more transactions and the

transactions are worth more. plus they made a deal in august with paypal help in future transactions. discover up nearly 7% today as well as some other credit card companies like mastercard, visa, american express would discover coming out obviously showing some strength for the company. back to you. ashley: one of charles payne's ones to watch. tracy: manufacturing hitting the skids, we clos weekly jobless fs are the lowest levels in two months. are things getting better or worse? next. ashley: student loan debt of paving credit card debt. but first, a look at how the dollar is moving right now.

look at how the current is doing, the euro, the pound, the canadian dollar all slightly higher.

>> 21 minutes past the hour, this is your fox news minute. sources have confirmed to fox news the obama

administration knew in 24 hours the attack in libya that killed the ambassador and three other americans was an act of terror. conflict with previous claims by administration officials that the attack was simply spontaneous. united nations is warning the number of refugees fleeing syria could more than double by the end of this year 700,000. nearly 300,000 have fled into neighboring countries since the conflict began 18 months ago. and a man dying that jimmy hoffa who finished 37 years ago investigators looking for a suburban crime wave after he saw a body being put into the ground around the time she disappeared. those are your interesting news headlines on the fox business network. now back to ashley and tracy. tracy: this is the story, we are

too intrigued by this. the markets are up despite mostly gloomy economic data. in order for noble goods falling sharply. one bright spot was initial jobless claims falling more than expected, less people on the unemployment line. here to break down the numbers, chief economist at raymond james. gdp down, durable goods plummeted, what bothers you most about those two numbers? >> the second quarter is ancient history. but the durable goods figure certainly was a bit of a shock. we expected to see the headline number down pretty sharply largely due to the drop in aircraft orders. the ex-transportation numbers that were a lot weaker than anticipated and downward revision to the july numbers so

there really is a weak trend in durable goods numbers continue with the general slowdown of manufacturing due to the weakness in the global demand as well. tracy: via federal express, caterpillar really gloomy outlooks, toyota cut in production, the global economy still the really big story here at home. >> i think it definitely is. the uncertainty at home with the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling and all that up in the air. if you plan on expanding, hiring more workers, they put that off for a couple of months. growth will be a lot weaker. tracy: so where are we? are we kind of in reverse right now? >> it is more of the same. still in recovery.

not especially strong. we are seeing the job growth strong enough to be consistent with the growth in the working age population, but not anywhere near strong enough to make up during the economic downturn. tracy: the money will keep coming. that growth is still a problem. does not make a whole lot of sense, does it? >> monetary policy cannot solve the problem, cannot do everything, but the fed is obliged to do what it can. number of headwind still, housing to be looking a little bit better. still a lot of homeowners underwater, weak global economy, still substantial subtraction.

tracy: woody looking for the job number next week? speak around 120,000 or so, could the north or south of that but nothing special. tracy: thank you for sharing your thoughts. >> my pleasure. ashley: here's a story we have been following extensively, student debt has hit a record number of u.s. households, one in five, a study by the research center, 22 million households have racked up college debt. the biggest three-year increase in school loans over two decades, average outstanding debt increased 23,000 to 26,000. 10 schools of the best financial aid. in no particular order of the top school, claremont, mckenna, colombia, pomona college in california.

and the yale university with the best financial aid. tracy: a plethora of donations. all right, tonight's nfl game in baltimore something we have not seen in a while. regular refs. what it took to get them back on the field next. ashley: as we head to the break, some of the winners and losers and discover having a good day up nearly 7%. tracy: the refs should be on that list. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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♪ speed and 30 past the hour. let's get a check at the markets. nicole: we are looking at a triple digit, 100 reef point gain on the dow jones industrial. i do not think you anticipated a move like this today. >> i think the bulk comes from that. nicole: i do not disagree with that. when we talk about the economic figures we have been getting, first of all, or good rates at the lowest level ever. year over year still showing

improvement. >> that is what stimulated the bid prices going back ten years. there are a lot of the prices out for sale. we are not getting enough traffic. a lot of people's own homes are underwater or post underwater. it is tough to get people to trade up and spend for money. i think that is the problem. nicole: let's talk about the markets overall. how do you feel we will go out into the election? >> i thought that when qe3 came markets would never go down again. i hear people grumbling about it not being bold enough. that we need for in terms of stimulus. maybe they will get something out of the fed later in the year. i think the market will tend to

drift up for the rest of the year. nicole: thank you, robbie. back to you guys. ashley: the official officials are back. the regular nfl referees will be on the field today after three weeks. the nfl and referees union have agreed to a tentative date year field. peter barnes has the story. >> roger goodell holding a press conference on this about 90 minutes ago. he apologized to fans. take a listen. >> what is most difficult about it you have the two parties and a lot of parties outside the room. they get impacted by it. starting with our fans. we are sorry to bring them to that. that is unfortunately part of labor management disputes. they are also necessary to get the disputes resolved.

>> he said that that call with the packers seahawks game was a factor that helped regulators get into that and don't with a new deal last night. there are some pension reforms in the deal. nice pay increases for the referees considering this has been mainly part-time work. getting up to $200,000 a season by 2019. they can bench referees that they deem are underperforming. they can start hiring their own officials full-time. referees will vote on the package on friday or saturday. they will be back on the field for sunday's games. ashley. ashley: and the fans, of course, very happy about that. a little late for the packers. tracy: they are not going to take the 401(k). they still want their pensions.

it is a damn good part-time job. mitt romney's energy plan leads to the whole debate over who should control drilling and mining. the state or the federal government? >> it is part of governor romney's energy plan. it will remove federal control over energy production. this is a sensitive issue in the western part of the country. unlike places like oil rich north dakota where the state businesses run the most things -- companies must go through an extensive permitting process that can take months to years. the romney plan changes the timeline. it speeds it up. it gives them more power to work with regulators.

something industry argues could be good for everyone. >> protect resources and still produce energy. the amount of impact we are talking about is very very little. >> it is shortsighted because all it focuses on our giveaway to big oil campaign supporters. it is not big about what our energy mix needs to be five, 20, 50 years into the future where we have to make sure we have nonpolluting sources of energy like wind, solar and other forms of renewable energy. >> to bolster their arguments, both sides referred to former president theodore roosevelt.

tracy. tracy: great story. thank you so much. ashley: if you are charged with a crime and the charges are dropped. should it keep you from getting a job? one police department in massachusetts says yes. what the judge thinks his next. tracy: let's take a look at the ten and 30 treasuries. we will be right back. ♪

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♪ >> i am lori rothman with your fox business brief. the bullish tone on wall street continues. investors are also cheering stained detailed austerity plan to deal with the debt crisis. the satellite tv company plans to launch next monday under the brand dish net. there'll not be be able to match the high-speed connections. it is aimed at more than 14 million customers with little or no internet access. auto sales expected to climb nearly 9% in september. online automotive information provider estimates that 1.2 million new cars will be sold. that is an 11% decrease from august. that is the latest from the fox

business network. giving you the power to prosper. ♪

♪ tracy: should you be denied a job if you are charged with a crime where the charges were dropped? that tap into a 32-year-old springfield, massachusetts man who wanted to be a police officer. he was passed over for the job because of a 4-year-old murder charge that has already been dropped. judge andrew napolitano is here, but not really here. what if the guy had nothing to do with it? >> i am just a few miles away from you tracy and ashley. no one has an absolute right to any jobs in the employer can decide whether to hire a person

for any reason as long as that reason is not violating public policy. you can take into account things like a hunch or a gut feeling or even a rumor or even something about the person's background. the state of massachusetts, as does most days and the union, has a person who has been arrested and let go, arrested, charged and acquitted, they could be allowed lawfully to answer under oath, no, i was never arrested. this person failed to do that. as a result, everyone knew about it. if they have a bad feeling about this guy, can they take that bad feeling into account when they decide whether or not to hire him? yes. absolutely, yes.

tracy: god did not see this it never happened. if we get rid of the records, the whole thing did not happen. >> if we expunge the record, the people doing the hiring -- he would not have to tell them about it when he filled out an application. tracy, my dear, fellow new jersey i tell you, you cannot compare expunge and with an annulment and you know that. [laughter] tracy: i was taking a shot, judge. [laughter] tracy: a year ago i would have gotten kicked under the table for that one. we need you back in studio next time. ashley: thank you, judge. you can be falsely accused of anything. it should not prevent you from getting a job.

you should take the steps to expunge and then it would not be an issue. tracy: i agree to. ashley: public partnerships taking on challenges around the world. liz claman joins us now from the plaza hotel right here in new york city with more on the summit. liz: business working with government to create real solutions. that is the focus here at the plaza hotel at the concorde via summit. we have a designer talking about how private partnership has helped rebuild a big fashion of hers. they are all waiting. i've ran a panel here talking specifically about eight used private partnership successfully. -- we will be talking specifically about how the businesses and the government

create infrastructure. that is a big topic. needless to say, and just the past couple of hours, spain has come out with a budget and it was just 24 hours ago that there was massive writing. right now people are picking through the plans of this budget. governments all around the world find themselves facing huge deficits and they do not have enough tax revenue coming in. at the same time, they are trying to put together austerity plans. how would this nightmare sort itself out? coming up, as i said, at 2:00 p.m., the former president of poland. he turned down the euro as the currency. at 3:00 p.m. eastern, senator john mccain said down with me. wait until you hear what he has to say about getting rid of all but two tax deductions. stay tuned. ashley: thank you so much.

tracy: i am going to try to guess. it is a quarter till the hour. time for stocks now as we do every 15 minutes. i can't believe we are talking about research in motion. nicole: not that dead. it has been certainly a nice product of hope for blackberry. everyone has waited for it a long time. they are able to easily flow through the apps. they are looking for app developers. they are doing well with some of their flow and devices. as a report, their quarterly numbers after the bell, people will be looking for what they have. we have some of their good news already that their subscriber base grew. that shows a glimmer of hope right there. the question is how much cash do they have on hand as they have been launching the blackberry fan. these are some of the things

that will come into play. today, it is pulling back ahead of the reports. back to you. ashley: down, but not out tracy: stay tuned. we will have complete coverage of research in motion earnings at 4:00 p.m. after the bell. ashley: oil closing up. 91.85 a barrel. that is a gain of more than 2% after three straight sessions of the client. finishing yesterday under $90 a barrel. the mega- sensation engravers have made a name. a look at the new game that launches today. [ talking over each other ] tracy: take a look at some of today's winners and losers on the nasdaq as we head over to break. my favorite, green mountain

coffee roasters. ♪

♪ tracy: silber has jumped tenfold since june. sandra smith in the pit of the cme with today's trade. sandra: you will see why so many

folks are bullish on silver right now. it has already been outperforming gold this year. now morgan stanley is putting out a big call think that kind will continue for at least the next three quarters. hedge funds are the most bullish they have been in the past seven months. the reason being the third round of quantitative easing. if you look back at history, the first and second round, that stimulation of the economy helped boost. as lb, the silver etf, it is also benefiting. do not ignore cold. gold hitting 1788 tray out today. gold is setting a record when priced in euros and with frank. we have a week currency.

silver will be even better than gold over the next several quarters. back to you. tracy: sandra smith, thank you very much. at least i get silver. i do not get gold. ashley: after launching its best selling game angry birds. they are launching a new game. >> andrew, you have a follow-up to angry birds. the beauty of the game is its simplicity. you have these new high-powered devices out there. the iphone5, 41. windows eight is coming. are you trying to raise it to a new level for math definitely is a new franchise for us. as we seek entertainment shift onto new devices, we are excited

to be launching on iphones, ipods and android devices. >> just a few hours to go to number one. casual gamers are notoriously fickle. how much pressure is there on you guys for that piggies to have the same power? >> there is always a lot of pressure. we think this is a really good one. we have 90 levels in the game, plus four bonus levels. we are treating the game as a service, not a product. >> angry birds was early to the market. how much more difficult is it now?

>> there is obviously 700,000 apps out there. we just focus on putting our rent and our fans first. we make sure we have a great product. not only are we generating revenues from selling games or advertising, we are also selling consumer products that we have a new video business that is coming later on in that year. i think all of that really helps you stand out in the app store. >> how lucrative are the add-ins into a book for some of those in the bad piggies game? >> there is multiple revenues in the game. for us, you know, as i mentioned, we put the brand first. everything we do we treat like a franchise. what that means is, we will see

consumer products and we will see video. >> andrew, one must question, i feel coming? >> [laughter] good question. that is up to the ceo and the board. clearly, there is a lot of interest. >> let us know when that happens. thank you for joining us. back to you guys in the studio. ashley: thank you very much. tracy: back to liz claman at the concorde af. she will be talking to john mccain. "countdown to the closing bell" is next. do not go anywhere. ♪ ♪

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but the "countdown to the closing bell" begins right now. stocks are jumping after spain announced details on the 2013 budget which is expected to cut more than 51 billion for the country's deficit. at least that is the hope leading the dow general electric, bank of america, intel, the dow itself off of the session highs. gold is soaring, and off a low as investors make a better game in inflation with fears around beginning to simmer. it was not all good news. gdp growth cut from 1.7% to 1.3%. the commerce department saying revision in consumer spending, exports and inventory investment are still to blame. liz claman spending the day at the concordia summit in new york, so tell us who you will be talking to this hour. liz: big minus, have to tell you. pr